Fateful scientific encounters in Ostia
by MC McFeller
Summary: The dreaded first meeting between Class 2-a Seat #24 scientific genius Satomi Hakase and Governor-General Kurt Godel of Megalomesembria. Two different, but disturbingly similar individuals. If they get along, the world very well might not survive.


"Governor Godel?"

"Hmmmm?" The neat, bespectacled man looked up from his paperwork at the woman standing at his door.

Godel examined her for a moment. Tall, dark skinned and in a well fitted business suit and miniskirt. A very pretty looking woman.

In Godel's eyes though, it wasn't the animated tail or the prominent cat ears atop her head that identified her as non-human. In fact, many of the residents of Mundus Magica looked just like any other resident of the old world, Earth.

But all of the 1.2 billion residents of Mundus Magica, save for the 67 million inhabitants of the nation of Megalomesembria, were not human. Not even real living beings in the truest sense. They were illusions, purely magical constructs made manifest. Much like Mundus Magica itself, an alternate realm built upon the fourth planet of the solar system.

Mars.

The woman looked at Kurt Godel curiously. The Governor adjusted his glasses and addressed her.

"Yes Katayrn?" He asked the Aiadne research department head.

"That expert from the old world that Master Negi referenced to us has just arrived. She WAS on her way here but...she caught sight of one of the labs, and immediately started examining equipment." She shifted her hand, summoning up a magical data screen. "...is this kind of person qualified to be involved Master Negi's grand project?" She raised an eyebrow. "She's only 16?"

Godel looked over the profile as well, but smirked as he got out of his chair. It had been convenient to set up the laboratory in the Governor's mansion, due to the proximity to Ostia, and his own personal loyalty to Negi's project.

"She seems eager to get started...and odd thing to be saying, considering this entire grand project was concocted by that boy two years ago when he was only 11." He walked into the hallway, gesturing for Katryn to follow him.

"I...I did not mean to disrespect Master Negi at all!" she blustered, following close behind Godel, her pump heels clacking on the tile floor. "Master Negi is, after all, the one who saved all from destruction!"

"Unlike me." Godel thought "Who conspired with those vipers in the Megalomesembria senate when I learned the terrible truth...who accepted that over a billion illusionary people like Katayrn couldn't be saved, and focused on the 67 million true humans living in Megalomesembria."

He didn't regret it though. It had seemed there was no option. The illusory realm of Mundus Magica, and its native residents, were tied to Mars. A dead world. So much mana leaching off a dead husk. Eventually there would not be anything left to feed on, and the world would collapse.

This is why Godel had accepted the Senate's plan that had abandoned over a billion in order to save tens of millions. In retrospect, it was similar logic to the terrorist group Cosmo Entelecheia had tried to mercy kill everyone on Mundus Magica.

One could say that an omelette couldn't be made without breaking a few eggs.

Only that boy had made them all look like fools with that plan of his.

"Terraforming?" Godel shook his head as they went to the secondary lab to meet their guest from the old world. Negi's solution had been simple, if astronomical in scale. If the dead, lifeless world of Mars couldn't support Mundus Magica, then a green life-bearing world could. Life was an incredible source of Mana after all.

"Perhaps this is why keeping things secret amongst too small a group is dangerous. It breeds insular thinking. Such an obvious solution and none of us had even considered it."

"That's probably why Master Negi wanted so many different kinds of people for this project." Kataryn gave Kurt a sharp look. "Ariadne has many gifted magi and scholars. If Megalomesembria hadn't kept this calamity hidden from us..." she caught herself. "...Nevermind. That's not important any more"

"Indeed. And besides. Negi's friend should be here any minute."

"Still...she's not a mage though. "

Kurt smirked, rubbing his face as he stood up. "I wouldn't underestimate ANY of Negi's students. I learned that the hard way." Kurt's eyes caught the door opening, though Kataryn was still engrossed with her readout.

"True, but...integrating a mechanical dolls to magical power sources is impressive, but it's still very fundamental very fields of study."

"Well lets hope that boy is right." They came upon the lab. "Because without greatly increased technical capabilities, the terraforming and Orbital elevator projects will be difficult."

Godel entered the room, gracefully and his face utterly composed. Normally the Governors style was enough to turn heads whenever he arrived on the scene, but nobody in the seemingly empty room gave him any heed.

Seemingly empty. His eyes finally came across a distracted looking young girl in a lab coat, her attention raptly on a small enchanted instrument.

Satomi Hakase. She was girlish looking enough, if a shorter than expected. She looked to be under five feet. Petite, but not child like, her hair combed flat across a slightly bulbous head and tied in twin pigtails.

Still, she looked serious enough, utterly focused on the instrument. The goofy spectacles seemed a bit comic...but her eyes shone intelligently behind them.

"Few more years and she'd be rather beautiful." Godel filed that thought in the same part of his brain where he memorized what the weather was like on a day to day basis. "Miss Hakase." He addressed.

Those large, intelligent looking eyes swiveled towards the Governor. "Ah! Godel-kun." She walked over to the governor, and extended a delicate looking hand out for a handshake. "Nice to meet you! Sensei has told me that you've been a great help to him...though I saw you helping to save one of my classmates. So that is a given. "

Godel smiled back. After spending years with dealing with the senate he'd learned to leave a good first impression on everyone he met. He savored when he could use it on someone he did not immediately detest.

He took Hakase's hand in his. Her hand disappeared in his, but her grip was firm, even in the hands of a trained swordsman like Godel. Hakase was obviously well used to hand tools. "As am I miss Hakase. Negi has told me nothing but good things when it comes to your expertise and adaptability."

"...though as I'm sure your former junior high classmates must have told you, I merely was doing what was expedient after the time." He gave her a level gaze. "Afterall, I did try to arrest and imprison them, didn't I? I would say all I did was break even in terms of Karma"

"Oh hardly!" Hakase waved her hand with a perky smile. "As a person whose solder her soul to science I don't believe in Karma, but even if I did, it would seem to me that your evil schemes were carried out ineffectually enough against Ala alba that the bad karma wouldn't stick. So that definately means your actions later counted as a +1 on the good side!"

Godel's eyes twitched, and he readjusted his glasses, embarrassed more than anything. Though Kataryn gave the two concerned looks. "Ah...well thank you..." Godel said, shifted his eyes away.

He gestured to Kataryn. "This is Kataryn. She is a materials magi from Aiadne. The terraforming project will require many new advancements to be made in both the fields of magic and science in order to be a success. So that is why we've gone about gathering bright minds in the same location."

Kataryn inched towards Hakase, shaking her hand as well. "Yes. i'm sure Miss Hakase will prove an invaluable team member for us."

Hakase nodded. "It was a bit sad to leave the Mahora Academy Robotics and Jet Propulsion Society behind, but there are so many opportunities to be had here. Besides, I can see Chachamaru more this way, and I don't think Chao would like for me to skip out on her home town!"

Kurt blinked. He was familiar with Chachamaru, the magically powered robot Hakase had helped construct, but he was unfamiliar with Chao. "Someone you know from the magical world?"

"errrrrr, can't say. Semi-confidential actually...though I suppose we've already messed up continuity enough to not matter? I mean, once we clearly understand that it's actually the principles of alternate realities that we're working with than concern over alterations to the timeline in terms of paradoxes actually becomes rather trivial..."

Hakase went on like that for a few minutes, at an ever increasing pace, to Kataryn's total bewilderment at the uncanny glaze that the short earth girls eyes had taken.

"...G-governor...what is she talking about?" she looked at the shorter girl in a bit of confusion.

Godel raised an eyebrow, and adjusted his glasses. "Hmmmmmmm..." He thought for a moment. "Well that would explain how Negi knew...certain things...no mistake. Something intentionally got set up with that class of his...already too many high level pactio contracts to be coincidence."

"...sir?"

"...make nothing of it. See miss Hakase to the lab." Godel grinned a smile he rarely showed when he wasn't exceptionally pleased. An intense, manic expression. One that hinted at the plots and schemes he routinely concocted in his head. Her glasses only seemed to intensify it. The maniac chuckling didn't help either. "Yes...Kataryn. Please show Miss Hakase the labs. I'm sure we will find her most useful."

"...Yes sir." Kataryn looked at Godel nervously. Even though Hakase was a little eccentric, she was just normal girl. She knew personally the kind of dirty schemes the governor had been involved in. "Does he have something in mind for this girl?" Kataryn thought to herself, sticking close to Hakase like a protective big sister.

"...look Hakase, be careful around Governor Godel. He's an extremely untrustworthy sort." Kataryn whispered into Hakase's ears.

Hakase blinked, broken out of her ramblings on transdimensional physics, to realize they were no longer in the lab, and the Governor was no longer present. "Really? I thought he seemed like a pretty friendly guy."

Kataryn gave an exasperated look at Hakase. "You were...distracted. You didn't notice his evil laughter...Just remember, if you need ANY help just call me." She gave Hakase a friendly wink. "I'll put that creep in place for you. Now let me show you to the labs and your living quarters. Our scientific research staff DO get the best VIP qaurters in the Governors mansion. That IS one a perk about staying around the creep."

Hakase looked nonplussed. "I don't know...I thought his laugh was kinda cute."

Godel made his way back to his office to get back to his paper work. Hakase's presence was an amusing distraction, and it was comforting with the knowledge that another useful asset had been added to the plan.

But Kurt Godel was a busy man, more so now that he was supporting the grand terraforming project on the side. Hakase had become a minor cog in a growing machine that would make up the plan. Albeit, a potentially very amusing one.

In the coming months, she would prove far more amusing than he initially supposed.

Kurt marched briskly, blowing on his hot coffee as he walked. It was an early morning, Kataryn had called him down to the labs established to help facilitate interworld research for the terraforming project.

It should have been a day off for the staff actually, even the workaholics amongst them. But it seems that a few besides Kataryn had stayed around.

Months ago getting dragged down to the labs on a day off would have severely irritated Godel. Though increasingly of late, he was finding the emergency calls from Kataryn rather enjoyable.

Godel met Kataryn at the door. She looked frantic, ears downcast and her cat tail wagging erratically in alarm.

"Governor! It's...It's terrible! It's...she's...I don't...!"

Godel sipped his coffee. "Calm down Kataryn. Now tell me...what has Miss Hakase done this time?"

"I don't know sir!" She threw her arms up in frustration. "But whatever she's doing, it's sucking up power from the rest of the labs! At the current rate it's going, I think we might see blackouts outside the labs to."

"Now...why didn't you just cut the power? You have the key for that."

"Oh..." Katatryn shifted as they walked into the lab. She blushed with embarrassment. "I did try that but...I was in a hurry, so I fumbled and dropped it into that acidic solution the Hellas team was working with...its completely destroyed."

"...good grief." Godel shook his head, but he was smiling in an earnest, if creepy manner that made Kataryn's stomach turn. "Now lets see what our darling little professor is up to."

They found Hakase in her lab. A disturbing array of machines zapping magical energy all about the room. Hakase for her part, was at a terminal manipulating the controls. She was still in her lab coat, but wearing what looked to be a high tech swimsuit with gloves and thigh high boots; her lab outfit apparently. She didn't notice the two, as she had a pair of advanced looking goggles on.

Kataryn recoiled at Hakase's manic glee as she manipulated the machine.

Godel approached the crazed scientist. "Now miss Hakase, what is it that you're..." when his hand touched Hakase's shoulder, it zapped him with a current of magical energy. Godel recoiled, waving his hand, though remaining calm. This wasn't the most bizarre thing that had happened during one of his interventions Kataryn had called him in for,

"And to think" Godel thought to himself. "When she first came here, Kataryn gave me a lecture about keeping my hands off her...now on a bi weekly basis she calls me down here to keep her under control!"

Hakase turned to Godel, pulling the goggles off. Her head just under his shoulder, she found herself staring right into his chest. She blinked, and craned her head up.

"Ah! Godel-kun. What are you doing in the labs? Did you come to see what we were working on?" Hakase seemed more than a little excited at the prospect.

"Yes..." he rubbed his hands, smiling "In fact, I came to find out what YOU were doing?"

"What I was doing?" Hakase seemed a bit taken back. "That's pretty remarkable considering all the talented people we have here!"

She straightened herself out. "Well we've been thinking of the kind of material we could possibly use for the space elevator."

Godel was familiar with the project. The terraforming process was a project that at minimum, would take decades. Most likely a century. It wouldn't be possible without the aid of the old world. And while the gates were fast, they had too limited of cargo capacity and required too much mana to be feasible for a project on this industrial scale. Hence, the need for orbital elevators to make interplanetary travel by conventional means a reality.

"I've realized that theoretically, if we could energize carbon nanotubes with innate charges of magical energy, with the right spells we wouldn't just increase their durability, we could make them active in all sorts of ways! From physical realignment, to even micro gravitational distortions!"

Godel stared, though somehow he didn't seem surprised to hear this coming from Hakase. "Would that really be possible?"

Kataryn jaw went slack. "Are...are you insane! That's incredibly dangerous! With enchanted individual components that small, with that much mana going into them...even if you could infuse the magic into microcomponents that small we couldn't control them!"

Godel looked at Kataryn. "Does that mean they'd come to life and attack us?"

Kataryn shook her head. "NO! It means they'd explode!"

Hakase waved her hand as she went back to work. "Only a little! About ten times as energetically as TNT. As long as we sequence it right there shouldn't be a chain reaction or anything dangerous like that."

"And besides, this way we wouldn't have to build it on the equator. Maybe even at the World Tree at Mahora academy...It's not active very often, but I've calculated that the energy we funneled off from it could power the elevator's nanomaterial for years at a time!"

Kataryn continued to stare slack jawed. "Governor! Surely you can't..."

To Kataryn's increasing horror, Godel seemed enthused with the idea.

"That's...utterly brilliant!" His face twisted into a disgusting smile, and he reached out with his arms. "Such a diabolical and unholy fusion of old world science and the art of Magi is truly incredible to behold! Nay! It is genius." He gloated as he looked at Hakase like a prized pet that had just shown him an incredible new trick it had learned by itself. "Satomi, once again, I give you full permission to carry out this experiment. I'll take full responsibility." Godel informed Hakase on a first name basis.

"Why thank you Governor! Now I just need to get this entire alpha numeric system charged up with these spells..."

Kataryn began to back away from the two slowly as they shot maniac words back and forth. "Is the Governor an idiot? Does he not understand how risky this is? No...well not completely...He's too smart for that but..." she looked at that manic gleam in his eyes. The eyes of a genius who had discerned the technique elite style of swordsmanship through observation, of a war orphan who had risen to political power through wit and force of will.

Accounting for whatever plot he had planned to save the 67 million citizens of Megalomesembria, Kurt Godel perhaps had a bit of a mad scientist in him.

And whatever the reason, this terrifyingly intelligent girl from the old world was bringing it out.

"Now all we need to do is begin the charging sequence into this 100 kilogram mass of nanomaterial and...hmmmmm? That's interesting." Hakase mused as she fiddled with the controls. A hot buzzing sound was coming from a large vat. "I totally didn't expect that."

Kataryn had already started running at "interesting".

Hakase blinked. She could hear and smell burning chemicals, as well as loose rubble crumbling about. Her ears still seemed to be ringing.

Her body was hanging in the air, her head, feet and long lab coat dangling towards the floor. A hand was holding her up by the upper back and below her knees. He was carrying her.

"Are you alright miss Hakase?" a voice asked her.

She pulled herself up, bracing herself off the arms holding her. She adjusted her spectacles, finding that the frames for both were cracked.

She could still see the refracted face of Kurt Godel. Governor, and technically her boss. His glasses and appearance seemed about as disheveled as she was.

"I'm fine...wait, did the nanomaterial explode?" She pulled herself up more, looking at him intently.

"Very spectacularly I might add!" She noticed that Kurt was holding a sheathed blade in one hand. "I think you only survived because I managed to cut a portion of the ceiling in front of us fast enough to use a shield."

Hakase seemed touched. "Why...thanks!" She looked up at Kurt thoughtfully, before relaxing. "After all, giving up my soul for science wouldn't have meant much if I were to just die here!"

"Not at all." Kurt smiled earnestly, maneuvering over the rubble while cradling Hakase with care. He made no motion to put her down, and Hakase gave no indication that she wished him to stop.

"Now that we've gotten past the theoretical question of whether or not we can do it, all we need to do is figure out how to control the reaction and prevent it from exploding!"

A crumbling bit of debris made her aware of just how much damage the blast had done. "...That might take awhile however...it'll be hard to replace all of that equipment."

"Oh don't worry about it!" Godel laughed, though hardly in an endearing manner. "I'm a Megalomesembria governor! Getting my hands on some replacement equipment is no great concern at all!"

"Really?" Hakase was giddy with delight. "That's incredible! I can think of quite a few things that would really accelerate our research into this!"

"Make a list later. I'm taking you to the infirmary to get looked at." They walked past the team of female emergency service personnel, ignoring them. They only gave the two cursory glances, before running past.

Kataryn pulled herself out from under a pile of debris as they passed, the damage from the explosion being rather extensive. A broken chunk of broken marble precariously balanced on top of her head, before falling off, leaving behind a bruise nearly as big.

An emergency worker knelt down next to Kataryn, offering her a hand out of the debris. She too looked at the governor and the scientist walking down the hall. "What are you people developing in there? To call it excessively dangerous would be an understatement!"

Kataryn shook her head. "No, I think the most dangerous thing in development just walked down the hall."

Another pair of emergency workers looked down the hall. "This is the fourth time this has happened, isn't it?" One said to the other, as they summoned stone golems to help repair the structural support beams.

"Your memory sucks, or you don't know how to count." The other countered with annoyance. "This is the NINTH time the Professor has blown up the labs."

"Huh? nononono." The first worker shook her head. "I mean this is the fourth time he's carried her out of the labs after it exploded."

"...oh...well I suppose you WOULD be right about that." The worker conceded.

Kataryn sighed as she was loaded into the stretcher, healing magic being applied. "I'd really like to take a vacation before those two blew up the planet..."


End file.
